Posted on 10/24/2014 10:09:50 AM PDT by shortstop
After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on.
He won’t manage the Rays in 2015. After nine seasons in Tampa Bay, Joe Maddon is moving on. He won’t manage the Rays in 2015.
Joe Maddon will no longer be the Tampa Bay Rays’ manager.
The team issued this statement from owner Stuart Sternberg this afternoon:
“Joe Maddon has exercised an opt-out in his current contract, a contract which was not scheduled to expire until after the 2015 season. We tried diligently and aggressively to sign Joe to a third contract extension prior to his decision. As of yesterday afternoon, Joe enabled himself to explore opportunities throughout Major League Baseball. He will not be managing the Rays in 2015. Joe has been our manager for nine seasons, and the foundation of success laid during his tenure endures. We thank him for all that he’s meant to the organization.”
I think any manager would like to find out what he could do on a team that doesn’t have to constantly trade away their top stars. The Rays had a great run but you can’t maintain a championship level team dealing your best players for prospects and relying on washed up vets like James Loney to fill in the gaps.
The question, of course, is who’s going to hire him?
The Braves should think of him instead of opting with Fredi.
While Mattingly has many managerial faults, he is nevertheless quite strong, no doubt from his days in New York, at dealing with the big egos that go along with the big contracts in LA, something Madden hasn't had much occasion to confront. So, perhaps Joe acts as a TV analyst for a year while Friedman evaluates Mattingly up-close.
lol. I clicked the link to find out what a Rays Rays was
Maybe Joe wants to take a long cruise in his RV. It takes a day for the back end to catch up to where the front end starts.
Yea,he really handled Puig!
Let’s go Mets!!!!
Tomorrow we find out they are moving.
Didn’t surprise me a bit, especially after Andrew Friedman left. Will hate to see him but we can’t expect him to stay in this small market forever.
That wouldn’t surprise me either.
I begin by assuming you're not being sarcastic.
He did indeed handle Puig, benching him for the final playoff game and, more generally, resolutely educating him over the past year-and-one-half, often through veteran surrogates like Juan Uribe and Adrian Gonzalez.
But it's not merely Puig. He jerked Matt Kemp out of CF into LF, sat Carl Crawford, then moved Kemp to RF, Puig to CF, and sat Andre Ethier. He routinely sends in a defensive replacement for Hanley Ramirez. All of them have HUGE contracts, but Mattingly is unafraid to confront any sense they have of entitlement. They know he's the boss.
With all his faults, in my opinion Mattingly is MUCH better as Dodger manager than his predecessor, the execrable Joe Torre.
Maddon will sign on with Los Angeles....after Arte Moreno wises up and fires Mike Scioscia.
Best manager in baseball, imho. Imagine what he could have done with the Yankees’ or Red Sox’ or Phillies’ payroll.
Why wouldn’t he want to re-up to manage a team where the payroll is only going down and which plays in a concrete mausoleum?
I hope so. I know Maddon is smart enough not to have started Josh Hamilton every day in the playoffs.
Or the Dodgers.
The Dodgers will never leave Brooklyn.
I’m a Tampa Bay Ray fan and I have mixed feelings on this. Sometimes Joe Madden is, no pun intended, maddening with his decisions to either stick with people or otherwise. He sticks by the batting coach to the bitter end even though there is a track record of players having their worst hitting years here in St. Pete. He didn’t re-sign Delmon Young at the end of the season because he was “a distraction in the clubhouse” but he did fine in Baltimore. Pitchers have got to be the most frustrated, with the number of games they have lost over the last several years by 2-1 or 1-0. There is NO hitting to speak of by the Rays and I just hope that Shelton leaves with Madden so we can get a hitting coach in who isn’t afraid of the long ball.
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